Leonard H. Goldenson (December 7, 1905 – December 27, 1999) was a
president of the U.S. television and radio network ABC.

Contents

1 Early life and career
2 Career at ABC
3 Personal life
4 References
5 External links

Early life and career[edit]
Goldenson was born to a Jewish family[1][2] in Pennsylvania in 1905.
He grew up in the town of
Scottdale, PennsylvaniaScottdale, Pennsylvania and graduated from
Scottdale High School. He was educated at Harvard, and entered the
entertainment industry in 1933 as an attorney for Paramount Pictures
after graduating from Harvard Law School. Goldenson was hired to help
reorganize United Paramount Theatres, Paramount's theater chain, which
at the time was nearing bankruptcy. So skillful was his work at this
assignment that Paramount's chief executive officer, Barney Balaban,
hired Goldenson as deputy to the manager of the Paramount Theaters
chain.
Career at ABC[edit]
Goldenson orchestrated the merger of
United Paramount TheatresUnited Paramount Theatres with
ABC in 1953 (after Paramount was ordered to spin it off in the wake of
United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., a 1948 decree of the U.S.
Supreme Court). ABC was originally formed in 1943 in the wake of an
earlier Supreme Court decree effectively ordering the spinoff of the
largely secondary-status
Blue NetworkBlue Network from its then-parent, NBC; its
buyer, industrialist Edward J. Noble, tried to build ABC into a
competitive Broadcasting company, but by 1951 was rumored to be on the
verge of selling the nearly bankrupt operation to CBS, whose
management apparently wanted ABC's critically important
owned-and-operated television stations.[3][4]
Goldenson rescued ABC by convincing his board of directors to buy the
company from Noble for $25 million. becoming the founding president of
the merged company which was named American Broadcasting-Paramount
Theatres. The modern ABC dates its history from the effective date of
the Goldenson transaction, and not the
Blue NetworkBlue Network spinoff.
Although he focused chiefly on ABC Television, Goldenson oversaw all
areas of ABC-Paramount's entertainment/media operations for over
thirty years, from 1951 to 1986, including the creation of the AmPar
Record Corporation in 1955 and the 'rebadging' of the ABC-Paramount
group as the
American Broadcasting CompanyAmerican Broadcasting Company in 1968.[5] Goldenson also
was instrumental in the sale of ABC to Capital Cities Communications
in 1986, which at the time, was the largest non-oil merger in history.
Very early on in his tenure, Goldenson also hired the first
African-American staff announcer in network television and radio
history, Sid McCoy.
Personal life[edit]
His wife was Isabelle Charlotte Weinstein, co-founder of United
Cerebral Palsy.[6] Goldenson, whose first-born daughter Cookie was
born with cerebral palsy, co-founded
United Cerebral PalsyUnited Cerebral Palsy in 1949 and
used station WBKB (at the time owned by United Paramount Theatres) to
be the flagship station for the inaugural UCP telethon that year.
In 1974, Mr. Goldenson received The Hundred Year Association of New
York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions
to the City of New York." The Leonard H. Goldenson Theater at the
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences building in North Hollywood,
California is named in his honor. Goldenson was inducted into the
Television Hall of Fame in 1987.
Goldenson was known for always flying economy class and never driving
a new car.[7]
He died on December 27, 1999 at the age of 94.[7] He was survived by
his wife and his two daughters: Loreen Goldenson Arbus and Maxine
Goldenson.[7] His daughter Loreen Arbus was the first woman to head
programming at a major television network at Showtime Networks.[8]
References[edit]